Searching for Downtown Meat

Sometimes you get questions that stick with you and won’t go away. They’re burning, say, at about 500 degrees over open flame.

Case in point: Last week, I took the media tour of the new suites at the Golden Gate. They’re nice and classy in a retro way without being too delicate or pretentious, and I have a feeling that they’ll appeal to people who already like the Golden Gate. The top floor of the expansion is given over to two massive suites, the kind of thing you see as a matter of course in Strip resorts but, understandably, haven’t seen too much of at the Golden Gate, where until a few years ago the maximum bet at the tables was $300 per hand.

Some of the media in attendance marveled at the design, noting how the feathered pattern in the custom carpet referenced the iconic Vegas showgirls the suite was themed around. Others asked questions about the suite’s green credentials. Me? I got stuck on the patio, looking at a pretty nice gas grill, wondering how guests were going to cook themselves burgers. Would they take a cab to the nearest Smith’s and do it themselves? Or would it be prepared in the room by a chef?

I asked about it and was told that if the guests wanted to use the grill, they’d be taken care of, which I translated as the latter option. But earlier this week, I saw a thread on the VegasTripping.com boards titled “Finding Raw Meat Downtown,” and that got me thinking again. I reached out to a Golden Gate representative and asked the question: where, oh where, do you get raw meat downtown?

The answer was about what I predicted, with those details I couldn’t provide myself. Here it is: “Between the two properties (Golden Gate and The D), they have multiple restaurants as well as banquet facilities and a full food and beverage warehouse which holds enough product to feed more than 15,000 people per week. There is very little that they can’t get with only a few hours’ notice”

So if you find yourself in one of those top-shelf suites and that grill won’t leave you alone, here’s what you do: give your host a call. Tell him or her what you want to grill (and what you’d like to go along with it), and, within a short time, you should have it. The farthest they’d have to go would be the warehouse, and they might be able to send something right up from the kitchen. If you want a chef to prepare it for you, a little advance notice is all they need.

Just another reminder that, if you’re betting limits are high enough, it’s not impossible to do anything, including sourcing raw meat in downtown Las Vegas.